This article is written for the Borderless exhibition of Art From Future. Esteban is one of the exhibited artists of the collective show taking place in Protoworld from 0ctober 13th, 2022.
Art in life
Esteban is a firm believer that one does not start making art, rather art is inherent to people. To him it is something we have all always been doing, and that we continue or leave over time.
Esteban drew throughout his childhood and shifted to digital art when he got his first computer at age 8. In his teens, he was already playing with software like photoshop, coreldraw and flash. He later pursued a graphic design career, when he started to produce with a greater intention of making art.
A child during the 90s, Esteban consumed all kinds of movies, series and cartoons from the 80s. Later on, he got into 70s punk, post punk and 80s new wave, impressed by themes like darkness and machines. Esteban is a Gemini who finds inspiration movement and duality: cars moving, painted walls of abandoned factories, surrealism and expressionism.
Persistence of the machines
With Start The Machine collection Esteban tries to create a world full of machines : little engines that run everything in the universe. They are to him a representation of what drives us forward, and keeps us moving. A set of pieces that work incessantly so as not to disappear. A call to productivity.
On the other hand an intruder is depicted : an individual arriving in that world to alter the functioning of the machines. A story that questions the demands of the contemporary world, and poses a struggle between self-exploitation and mental health.
When I created the “intruder” I needed a 3D space to include it. I needed to create a haunting atmosphere, and I wanted to keep the geometric shapes. I used it to show floors and walls that are in motion all the time. It is not known if we can go through them or if they are solid. And with the diagonals everything becomes more dynamic and unstable, managing to get out of the orthogonality that it had been showing in the machines. The intruder is the representation of all the fears and doubts that do not allow us to move forward. It is a stretch and release path. First we suffer it, then we understand it, then we accept it, but the red creature does not cease to exist even if it is naturalized, and we suffer it again. So it becomes a struggle between being productive and taking care of yourself.
The NFT journey
NFTs helped Esteban stay consistent in creating and forging his style. NFTs also came to show how art has a value in itself, making it easier to sell. Compared to what artists used to do for free on social networks, NFT is an incredible move forward.
Esteban sees NFTs as a solid way to support all kinds of people directly, without intermediaries and to members of a community. The support between communities and artists is highly valued. Like many artists and especially Latin Americans, Tezos is the reference blockchain for Esteban. It allows the creation of art at affordable prices.
"In fact, before web 3 I didn't have collectors, I only had people asking me for commission. With Web3, the equation was completely turned around, first I produce and then I sell. And it's great because I can control my time and do what I want, what I like. I have complete freedom to create."
In Web3, Esteban hopes to see more decentralization, fewer monopolies, open access spaces, smaller actors having the same voice as bigger ones. Like any technological tool, Esteban hopes Web 3 is used for good!
Follow Esteban on Twitter
See the collection on Objkt
art of internet 